Building an Encounter
See also: Gamemastering, Encounter Design 101 For purposes of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, an encounter is defined as an obstacle, threat, or situation (Whether it be an opponent, several opponents, or a Hazard) that prevents the heroes from achieving a specific goal important to the adventure. An obstacle, threat, or situation can be overcome through smart roleplaying, combat, or Skill use. Persuading a crazed Force Disciple to surrender might require heroes to enter difficult and perhaps life-threatening negotiations, while capturing a Crime Lord might require heroes to fight their way past a squad of Thugs or infiltrate the Crime Lord's headquarters without setting off the security system. Challenge Levels Every opponent or hazard the heroes face has a Challenge Level (CL), which tells the GMs how tough it is to overcome. For example, every Stormtrooper has a CL, as does every Wampa and Garbage Compactor. The more opponents and Hazards the heroes face at once, the more difficult the encounter and the more Experience Points (XP) the heroes get for overcoming it. A challenging encounter is one the heroes should overcome with minor to moderate damage to themselves and some depletion of their resources. A single obstacle, threat, or situation of Challenge Level n is challenging for a single character of similar level. For example, a 1st-level hero should find a CL 1 Stormtrooper challenging. By extension, four CL 1 Stormtroopers should prove challenging to four 1st-level heroes. A difficult challenge is one that seriously taxes the heroes' resources and may require the heroes to withdraw and recover, while an unfair challenge could easily lead to a total party kill. Difficulty and unfair challenges are discussed below. Complications An encounter can be made harder by adding complications that make overcoming certain obstacles, threats, and situations more difficult. In general, adding a complication to an encounter increases the CL of every affected obstacle, threat, or situation by 1. For example, if the heroes confront four CL 1 Battle Droids and two of them have the benefit of Improved Cover (And the heroes do not), the GM should treat the two Battle Droids with Cover as CL 2 threats and award Experience Points accordingly. However, the two Battle Droids without Cover would still be counted as CL 1 threats. Beneficial Circumstances Sometimes an encounter is made easier by circumstances beyond the heroes' control. In such cases, you may reduce the amount of XP the heroes earn for achieving their encounter goals by as much as half. For example, if the heroes run across two bounty hunters who are moderately injured from a previous skirmish, the GM may elect to award only half normal XP for overcoming them. A GM should avoid reducing the XP awards when the beneficial circumstances are the direct or indirect result of good planning or roleplaying on the heroes' parts. For example, if the heroes use treachery or bribery to turn one bounty hunter against the other, they should receive full XP for both bounty hunters even though the encounter was made easier by their actions. Measuring Encounter Difficulty Creating balanced and fun encounters is more art than science. However, the following guidelines will help you build encounters that aren't so straight forward that players will be bored and aren't so difficult that the heroes aren't likely to survive: Multiple Opponents Encounters with two to six opponents work best. Save the single-opponent encounter for higher-CL "Bosses" like the Rancor or Darth Vader. Avoid encounters with more than a dozen opponents unless you want the heroes to feel overwhelmed. Variety The best encounters combine different sorts of obstacles, threats, and situations. Battling four Rodian Soldiers is much less interesting than fighting a Rodian Noble, two Rodian Soldiers, and the Noble's trained Nexu in a storage bay filled with cargo containers. Combining Different CLs When building encounters that involve multiple threats, obstacles, or situations of different Challenge Levels, add together the various CLs and divide the sum by 3 (Rounded down) the combined CL for the encounter is either this result, or the highest single CL + 2, whichever is more. If the result is within one level of the heroes' average level, it's probably a tough but fair challenge for the heroes. If the result is 2 to 3 levels above the heroes' level, expect a difficult encounter that seriously taxes the heroes' abilities and resources. If the result is 4 or more levels above the heroes' level, expect the heroes to have a real fight on their hands, and also brace for one or more hero deaths. Note that these are four heroes in the party. For each additional hero, subtract 1 from the result. For each missing hero, add 1 to the result. Most encounters should not include a single enemy whose CL is more than 3 levels higher than the average party level. Here are some sample encounters to illustrate the formula: *An encounter with three CL 2 Clone Troopers and one CL 5 Clone Trooper Commander have a combined CL of 11. Dividing 11 by 3 and rounding down, you get 3. Based on this result, you can expect this encounter to be a challenge for four 2nd-, 3rd-, or 4th-level heroes and a less challenging encounter for higher-level heroes. *An encounter with two CL 15 Elite Troopers have a combined CL of 30. Dividing 30 by 3, you get 10. Based on this result, you can expect this encounter to be a challenge for four 9th-, 10th-, or 11th-level heroes; a challenge for five 8th-, 9th-, or 10th-level heroes; or a challenge for six 7th-, 8th-, or 9th-level heroes. *An encounter with a CL 8 Crime Lord and five CL 5 Assassins have a combined CL of 33. Dividing 33 by 3, you get 11. This encounter is a challenge for four 10th-, 11th-, or 12th-level heroes and a difficult challenge for four 8th- and 9th-level heroes. It's an unfair challenge for heroes of 7th level or less.